Pre paid gas meter

babyfreckles

Hi all,
We have bought our first property and got the keys to it yesterday.
It has a pre paid gas meter, of which me or the OH are not familiar with! I went to Coop and topped up £10, we put the card in, screen comes up saying Emcr £6.00 which I am assuming is the emergency supply? When I press and hold the red button, it comes up with '27 gd remaining' then '£128.something'. I have tried to search google and not sure if I am correct, but does this basically mean that the gas is in debit by £128odd? Should we be able to use the gas? Only none of the hobs seem to want to work! I will give BG a call and find out if they can help, but thought I would ask you helpful lot here first
Thanks in advance xx

macman

You need to get your own card, unless you want to be potentially paying off the previous occupant's debt.

babyfreckles

Thank you, wasnt aware we needed to get a new one, they didnt even tell us that at BGas, we just assumed we could use the same card but create a new account I assume we get the cards from the Paypoint place we top up at?

macman

If you've registered for an account then they should have checked that for you at the time-call them again.
There's a section on the BG site dedicated to PPM's:
https://www.britishgas.co.uk/HelpAndAdvice/LookUp/#hnaarticles
No gas to the hob...have you turned the gas back on at the isolator? Is there gas to any other appliances?

MeterMan

Hold button A until it beeps, First screen it will take you to is 'GD REMAINING' this means gas debt remaining to pay. it should also have a figure on the same screen to imform you of how much is left, if there is a ZERO figure. there is no debt. If there is, you'll need either a new card and to check the debt has gone once the card is registered. If that doesnt work and the debt remains you will need a decom/recom.

C_Mababejive

You need to
a) inform the supplier you are the new owner/tenant
b)tell them you have already lost money on the meter
c)obtain your own gascard
d) ensure that the meter has a visit to decom/recom BEFORE you use your new gascard in it

macman

OP says they have already spoken to BG, so why wasn't a new card issued once the meter S/N was given and the system would have showed remaining debt from the previous occupant?

SwanJon

As above - screen 27 (GD remaining) shows how much of a balance the meter is looking to recover, but just as important are the next two screens (25/26 - GD Weekly Min/Max). If these are at zero then you wan't be paying anything off.
These can be amended without a new card or reset (decom/recom), but if these aren't at zero I'd call in again. The process can take a few top ups to fully up date (which is why reducing the weekly payment to zero is the first step)

You can find out what happened to your last top up by looking at screens 00, 01, 02 and 03 (Screens shoud be in the order 27,25,26,24,00,01,02,03 - older meters had then in the numebered order)
00 - how much you last topped up
01 - how much of this was taken for debt
02 - how much was taken for emergency credit
03 - how much was left to be used for gas

How long was the house empty before you got the keys - it's possible that the standing charge had gone unpaid and this has contributed to the emergency credit.

You can check if there is any more by pressing (not holding) the red button - the screen won't have anumber and will say OWED.